Upper-Body Warfare

There are no leg attacks in Greco-Roman wrestling.

No low single to create space. No ankle pick to rescue a bad position. No diving underneath an opponent when the fight above the waist begins going wrong.

There is only pressure.

Hands fighting for inside control. Foreheads pressed together. Hips positioned carefully enough to prevent the next body lock from becoming four points—or five.

A Greco match can appear motionless until it suddenly becomes violent. Two wrestlers can spend a minute fighting over inches before one mistake sends a body rotating through the air.

That is the bargain.

And in Fargo, there is nowhere to hide from it.

The 2026 U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals crowned 32 Greco-Roman champions across the Junior and 16U divisions, concluding two days of upper-body warfare inside the FARGODOME.

Illinois overwhelmed the Junior team race, winning its third consecutive championship with more than twice the score of runner-up Iowa. Iowa answered in 16U, capturing its own third straight title behind two Triple Crown winners and production throughout the lineup.

Waylon Cressell completed USA Wrestling’s Triple Crown in the Junior division. Jaimon Mogard and Sawyer Schendel accomplished the same feat in 16U.

Different states controlled the two divisions.

Three wrestlers completed one of the most difficult sweeps in age-group wrestling.

And Greco once again proved that Fargo can change in a single exchange.

Illinois Leaves No Doubt

There was little suspense in the Junior team race.

Illinois scored 249 points, more than doubling runner-up Iowa’s total of 112 and finishing 165 points ahead of third-place Oklahoma.

It was Illinois’ third consecutive Junior Greco-Roman team championship, another decisive performance from a state whose wrestling identity remains closely tied to the international style.

The title was powered by enormous depth. Illinois entered 84 wrestlers and placed athletes throughout the brackets, turning advancement rounds, consolation matches and medal bouts into an insurmountable lead.

Mason Rundell supplied the first championship at 120 pounds, overwhelming fellow Illinois wrestler Rhett Long, 14–4, in the final.

Jax Castleberry added another at 132, surviving a 6–5 decision over Ohio’s Tyler Wurster.

The two champions accounted for only part of Illinois’ production. The state repeatedly sent wrestlers deep into brackets and placed enough athletes throughout the podium to end the team race long before the final championship was awarded.

Greco team titles are built differently than individual ones.

One wrestler can win with one decisive throw.

A state wins by continuing to score everywhere.

Illinois did both.

Cressell Completes the Triple Crown

The team championship belonged to Illinois.

One of the tournament’s defining individual achievements belonged to Iowa’s Waylon Cressell.

Cressell defeated Maryland’s Vance Marks-Jenkins, 4–3, in the 190-pound final to complete the Triple Crown—winning national folkstyle, freestyle and Greco-Roman championships in the same year.

His Greco title came only days after he captured Fargo’s Junior freestyle championship at the same weight.

The two finals could not have looked more different.

Cressell won freestyle, 8–3, behind the broader offensive options of that discipline. In Greco, one point separated him from Marks-Jenkins. With leg attacks removed and every upper-body position magnified, he found another way to win.

That is what makes the Triple Crown so rare.

It does not reward mastery of one ruleset.

It requires a wrestler to change with the style.

Cressell left Fargo having conquered all three.

Ivanov Delivers the Tournament’s Defining Performance

Idaho’s Ivan Ivanov did not merely win the 175-pound championship.

He earned Outstanding Wrestler honors.

Ivanov closed his tournament with an 8–0 technical superiority victory over Tennessee’s Garrett High, ending the final in 1:25 and completing one of the most commanding runs in the Junior division.

Greco’s most dangerous wrestlers create a particular kind of tension. Opponents understand the position they must avoid. They know where the threat is coming from.

Stopping it is another matter.

Ivanov consistently dictated the hand fight, reached his preferred attacks and turned small positional advantages into decisive scores. His championship performance represented Greco at its most unforgiving: controlled pressure followed by sudden separation.

For most of the match, nothing appears open.

Then everything is.

Martin Nearly Completes the Fargo Double

Iowa’s Ty Martin entered the Greco tournament after winning the Junior freestyle championship at 100 pounds.

He moved to 106 for Greco and reached another final, where he met Michigan’s Drew Hamel.

The scoreboard ended at 1–1.

Martin won on criteria.

The result made him one of the week’s rare double champions and illustrated how differently success can be earned across the two international styles.

His freestyle title came by technical superiority. His Greco championship came down to criteria in a bout where neither wrestler surrendered a takedown or exposure.

The margin was almost nonexistent.

The second stop sign counted just the same.

Remington Puts Texas on Top

Texas did not contend for the Junior team championship.

It still left Fargo with a national champion.

At 165 pounds, Jadon Remington defeated Ohio’s Camden Gilmore, 5–3, to claim the Junior Greco-Roman title and carry one of Fargo’s red stop signs back to Texas.

The championship mattered beyond the individual bracket.

Texas continues to grow as a wrestling state, but it still enters Fargo without the sheer numbers or established Greco infrastructure of programs such as Illinois and Iowa.

Remington’s victory demonstrated that a state does not need to dominate the standings to produce a wrestler capable of winning one of the most difficult age-group tournaments in the country.

His final reflected the discipline itself.

There was no wide-open shootout and no room for a careless exchange. Remington remained composed in a tight match, managed the positions that mattered and found enough offense to finish two points clear of Gilmore.

In Greco, championships are often decided by who controls the narrowest margins.

Remington controlled his.

He also joins a distinguished group of Texans who have won Greco-Roman titles in Fargo, a lineage that includes future NCAA champion and U.S. World Team member Bo Nickal, who captured a Cadet Greco championship for Texas in 2012.

Texas finished 14th in the Junior standings with 44 points, but the team placement could not diminish the importance of its champion. For the state’s wrestlers, coaches and developing Greco programs, Remington’s victory offered proof that Fargo’s podium is not reserved for traditional powers.

One wrestler can change how a state is seen.

In Fargo, Remington did exactly that.

Alaska Makes Its Numbers Count

Alaska brought only 14 wrestlers into the Junior tournament and still produced a national champion.

Jarrett Morris defeated Illinois finalist Will Medlin, 5–4, at 157 pounds, helping Alaska finish 18th despite carrying one of the smallest delegations in the field.

The title foreshadowed what Alaska would accomplish in 16U, where Trestin Houck and Shane Ostermiller later added championships of their own.

Across the two age divisions, Alaska produced three Greco champions with a fraction of the entries carried by the largest state programs.

That was not depth.

It was efficiency.

Junior Champions Spread Across the Country

The Junior championships reflected Greco-Roman’s broad national footprint.

Tennessee opened the finals with Landon Raske’s 6–4 victory at 100 pounds. Oklahoma’s Cash Craft controlled the 113-pound final, defeating Illinois’ Nino Odiotti, 8–2.

Nebraska’s Carlos Dominguez earned a 10–1 technical superiority victory at 126. Michigan’s Nicholas Sorrow defeated Illinois’ Tyler Banas, 4–1, at 138.

Pennsylvania’s Nathan Kauffman shut out Minnesota’s Landon Collins, 8–0, at 144. Colorado’s Garrett Weichelt followed with a 6–0 victory at 150.

Utah’s Lucas Holman dominated the 215-pound final, defeating Illinois’ Jaxon Penovich, 8–0. Iowa heavyweight Aiden Honnold closed the Junior tournament with a 2–0 decision over teammate Jack Constable at 285.

Fifteen champions emerged from 12 states.

Illinois owned the team championship.

The individual stop signs traveled almost everywhere.

Iowa Owns the 16U Division

Illinois controlled Junior Greco.

Iowa answered one division below.

The Hawkeye State scored 190 points to capture its third consecutive 16U Greco-Roman team championship, finishing 38 points ahead of Pennsylvania and 47 ahead of Illinois.

Utah placed fourth with 106 points. Wisconsin scored 103, edging Minnesota by one point for fifth.

Iowa’s championship was built with a smaller roster than either Pennsylvania or Illinois. The state entered 51 wrestlers, compared with Pennsylvania’s 73 and Illinois’ 94, but produced more points per entrant and repeatedly converted deep bracket runs into podium finishes.

The team title included four individual champions.

Shay Lundvall won at 100 pounds. Diego Robertty captured 120. Jaimon Mogard added the 157-pound title. Tyde Nelsen won at 175.

Two wrestlers completed something even more significant.

Mogard and Schendel Finish the Sweep

Iowa’s Jaimon Mogard and Minnesota’s Sawyer Schendel entered the Greco finals with Triple Crowns on the line.

Both finished the job.

Mogard defeated Ohio’s Tommy Rowlands, 9–0, at 157 pounds. He had beaten the same opponent, 4–1, in the freestyle final days earlier.

The Greco rematch left considerably less doubt.

Mogard’s technical superiority victory secured Iowa’s fourth individual championship and made him one of two 16U wrestlers to win national titles in folkstyle, freestyle and Greco-Roman during the 2026 season.

Schendel joined him in the final bout of the tournament.

The Minnesota heavyweight defeated Pennsylvania’s John Montgomery, 5–0, at 285, adding a Greco stop sign to the freestyle championship he had already earned in Fargo.

Two wrestlers.

Three styles.

Six national championships between them.

Fargo demands versatility.

Mogard and Schendel provided it.

A Championship in 48 Seconds

Illinois’ team depth placed it third in 16U.

Its quickest championship arrived before the first minute expired.

Giovonni Nix pinned Utah’s Caleb Heyder in 48 seconds to win the 88-pound title, opening the finals with the kind of sudden violence Greco makes possible.

A final can be decided by accumulated pressure.

It can be decided by one caution.

Or it can end before either wrestler has time to settle into the match.

Nix needed less than a minute.

Illinois added another champion at 132 when Obadiah Willis defeated Maryland’s Weston Baumgartner, 7–1.

The two titles helped Illinois score 143 points, placing the state behind Iowa and Pennsylvania in a team race dominated by three of the country’s strongest Greco programs.

Alaska Turns Throws Into Titles

No state produced a more efficient championship performance than Alaska.

With only 15 wrestlers entered, Alaska scored 82 points, finished seventh and crowned two champions.

Trestin Houck pinned Pennsylvania’s Flynn Arnestad in 2:49 to win at 126 pounds.

Shane Ostermiller followed at 144, pinning Illinois’ Jeremiah Hayes in 2:51.

Combined with Jarrett Morris’ Junior championship at 157, Alaska produced three Greco-Roman champions across the two age divisions.

The state did not have Illinois’ numbers or Iowa’s scoring volume.

It had finishers.

In a style built around decisive action, that was enough to make Alaska one of the tournament’s most successful delegations.

Champions From Every Corner

Tennessee’s Chase Smith used a 54-second technical superiority victory to win the 94-pound title.

Utah’s Jack Holman scored a 9–0 technical superiority win at 106, while Pennsylvania’s Evan Cies took the 113-pound championship, 9–1.

Washington’s Austin Schield won at 138. Idaho’s Lincoln Steele defeated Virginia’s Reza Massjouni, 4–2, for the 150-pound title.

Arizona’s Jaiden Finger delivered one of the finals’ most explosive offensive performances, defeating Iowa’s Blest Woods, 13–4, at 165.

California’s Mason McDonnell won at 190. Wisconsin’s Kade Splinter captured his second Fargo title of the week by technical superiority at 215.

Across 17 weight classes, 12 states produced champions.

Iowa won the team title.

No state owned Greco alone.

Five Takeaways From Men’s Greco-Roman

Three consecutive championships already constitute a dynasty. Winning the latest by 137 points suggests Illinois is not merely maintaining its position. It is strengthening it.

Pennsylvania and Illinois brought larger delegations. Iowa produced more points with fewer wrestlers and turned four individual championships into a third straight team crown.

Waylon Cressell completed it in Junior. Jaimon Mogard and Sawyer Schendel did it in 16U. Each had to win under three different rulesets and prove that success in one style was not the limit of his wrestling.

Jadon Remington delivered one of the Junior tournament’s most meaningful breakthroughs for Texas, while Alaska turned two small delegations into three champions across the age divisions.

Greco rewards pressure and patience, but the threat of a match-altering throw never disappears. Giovonni Nix needed 48 seconds to become a national champion. Other finals came down to criteria or a single point.

By the Numbers

32 Greco-Roman champions crowned across the Junior and 16U divisions.

249 points for Junior champion Illinois.

190 points for 16U champion Iowa.

Three consecutive Junior team championships for Illinois.

Three consecutive 16U team championships for Iowa.

Three Triple Crown winners: Waylon Cressell, Jaimon Mogard and Sawyer Schendel.

12 states produced Junior champions.

12 states produced 16U champions.

48 seconds required for Giovonni Nix to win the opening final.

One exchange capable of changing everything.

The Hands Finally Separate

When Greco ends, it ends differently.

There is no final scramble around an ankle. No desperation shot fired from distance. The wrestlers separate from the same upper-body fight that occupied them from the opening whistle.

Hands release.

Foreheads pull apart.

One wrestler walks toward the center to have his arm raised.

Illinois left Fargo with another Junior team championship and a dynasty now three years deep.

Iowa left with the 16U crown, its own third consecutive title and two wrestlers who completed the Triple Crown.

Cressell left having completed the same three-style sweep in Junior.

Ivanov left as the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler.

Remington left carrying a stop sign back to Texas.

Everyone else left understanding the cruel simplicity of Greco-Roman wrestling.

The legs are off limits.

The margin for error is not.